To enhance airport security and improve screening procedures, American Airlines today urged U.S. Transportation Security Administration Chief John Magaw to expedite and standardize the screening process for pilots, flight attendants, airport agents and other airline ground employees.
Currently, airport screening methods for flight crews are "inconsistent, cumbersome and operationally taxing," American Airlines executives wrote in a letter sent to Magaw today.
The letter was signed by Robert Kudwa, vice president of Flight; Jane Allen, vice president of Flight Service; and Dan Garton, executive vice president of Customer Service, who together oversee more than 57,600 American Airlines flight and airport personnel.
"The security processes for flight crews and airport workers, who undergo extensive background screening, should be standardized and separate from those used to screen passengers," said Kudwa, who also serves on the Air Transport Association committee investigating the use of biometrics.
American Airlines is calling upon Magaw to develop an "expedited and revamped screening process for our nation’s most trusted travelers – the men and women who crew our commercial planes and service our passengers."
The letter asked for a revision to existing airport employee security policies that allow each airport to establish individual standards and maintain separate databases of employees with security clearance.
In addition, airline officials said that flight employees should be screened at designated checkpoints reserved for their use and separate from those used to screen passengers.
"To ensure the high level of customer service and flight performance we hope to maintain, we must design security measures that provide flight employees efficient, seamless movement through airports," Allen said.
American Airlines officials believe the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should establish a national database to prevent the delays, confusion and potential security breaches that could result from a patchwork system of different databases and screening processes.
The letter also recommends that the TSA adopt standardized identification protocols using biometrics or the proposed Transportation Worker Identification Cards
(TWICs).
"We are proud to cooperate with federal authorities to help fortify airport security and implement any measures necessary to ensure the safety of the traveling public," Garton said. "We look forward to working with Undersecretary Magaw on this important initiative."
American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, together with its regional affiliates American Eagle and the American Connection carriers, serves more than 251 cities in more than 40 countries and territories with more than 4,400 daily flights.
A copy of the letter :
May 22, 2002
Dear Undersecretary Magaw:
We appreciate your effort to develop improved screening methods as a part of a comprehensive initiative to fortify air travel security. As such, we are writing to urge an expedited and revamped screening process for our nation’s most trusted travelers – the men and women who crew our commercial planes and service our passengers. In light of matters discussed at your agency’s April 12th meeting on airline credentialing, and after hearing the many concerns expressed by our pilots, flight attendants and airport employees, we fear we are about to lose an opportunity to move in the best possible direction as we work to secure air travel.
Presently, the numerous screening methods among airports for our flight crews and airport employees are inconsistent, cumbersome and operationally taxing. We must design a new security regime that provides air transportation workers with seamless and expedited movement within and between airports. This means we need airline employee screening processes backed by a centralized, national database, and that any airline employee screening should be standardized, reasonable, and separate from passenger screening measures. Anything short of this does not improve on the current system and does little to deter terrorism.
As we understand it, TSA is establishing standards for a minimum level of security clearance for airline employees. These standards appear to allow each airport to define standards unique to that airport. Under this policy, airline employees will still need access cards issued by those airports not opting to recognize the proposed Transportation Worker Identification Cards (TWICs). Clearly, we desperately need to standardize.
Further, we understand that the proposed security standards would allow each airport to maintain separate databases of those employees with security clearance. Multiple databases create a time-delay weakness for locking-out or blacklisting at-risk employees. By the time the information is communicated to all of the many airport authorities and downloaded into each of their systems, a serious breach of security may have already occurred. We need to implement a national database.
Finally, to create a comprehensive airline security process that effectively deals with all types of threats, it’s important to understand and acknowledge that any potential risks posed by airline employees are different than those risks posed by passengers. For that reason, minimizing security risks for airline employees must be primarily accomplished by procedures outside of security checkpoint screening. We do not disagree that a comprehensive airport security program should include some form of employee screening at security checkpoints. However, such security screening should be accomplished at separate employee portals manned by TSA employees who use appropriate and consistent protocols designed to minimize operational disruptions, and should be based on universal TWICs or biometrics.
We share your belief that we, as a nation, must strengthen our airport security while supporting airline employees doing their jobs. We must not let the public or our flight employees down by simply patching up the current system’s shortcomings. Now is the time to adopt new and standardized technologies and policies that reflect a unified vision of safe and secure air travel. We look forward to working with you to achieve this shared goal and to your response on our ideas. Again, thank you for the opportunity to once again express our views and for your continued efforts on behalf of the airline industry and the traveling public.
Sincerely,
Bob Kudwa, Vice President, Flight
Jane Allen, Vice President, Flight Service
Daniel P. Garton, Executive Vice President, Customer Service |
